Page 74 of Skin Deep

“Mariann Rhetter!” War said, putting his scalpel against Bowen’s shriveled nutsack. “Stage name Monroe!”

The man’s eyes flared wide in recognition. “That fucking bitch? What do you care about some whore?”

War dug the scalpel in, making Bowen scream.

“Fuck! Oh fuck! Oh shit… She’s dead! I fucking killed her!”

“We know you killed her,” I said, pushing away from the wall. “Is it because she was talking to the cops about the ripper?”

Bowen laid there, panting, sweating, and bleeding.

“Answer,” I demanded, “or he goes back to work.”

Bowen’s jaw quivered and a tear slipped free.

Not so tough now, I thought.

“Simeon said…” Bowen started and then swallowed. “It was my job to keep him happy. To keep him under control. I figured nobody would miss a fucking dyke stripper. She wasn’t even making good money at the club. No family. Just that dumb broad she was with. And when she started talking to the pigs, that made my decision easy. I gave her to him. I told her I had a special job. Offered her ten grand and the fucking dumb bitch ate it up. That motherfucker was supposed to cut up her face like all the rest. But then he fucked her without a condom. Idiot.” He shook his head. “They would’ve gotten DNA and we’d all be fucked. I shot her and tossed her body into the river. Seems I’m never done cleaning up messes from you Volkov boys.”

War grabbed his chin and squeezed. “Who is he?”

Bowen tossed his head back and laughed. “Haven’t you figured it out yet, asshole? Murder runs in the family. It’s in your DNA. It doesn’t matter that your daddy whisked you away to Liar’s Corner. You still turned out to be a killer. Just like your old man. Just. Like. Your.Brother.”

War took a half step back, his nostrils flaring with rage. Bowen had finally found the right nerve.

“War,” I said and pulled him away. “What’s he talking about?” Surely, Bowen didn’t mean one of the brothers I’d met at Annie’s house?

War stared at me for a long moment, almost as if he were looking through me. “It’s Sergei,” he said quietly. “Sergei is my half-brother. He’s the ripper. That’s why the vory are protecting him.” He looked back at Bowen. “No, you didn’t just protect him, did you? You helped him find his victims.”

A chill went through me, numbness spreading into my fingers and toes. Before I’d even registered what I was doing, I’d stormed back over to Bowen, bat in hand. “Maya Cooper. Why?”

Bowen looked at me with nothing but hate. “You’re going to have to be more specific. That name means nothing to me.”

I tore out my wallet and dug through it with shaky fingers before I found my wife’s photo and shoved it at him. “You took a mother away from her children. Why?”

Bowen smirked. “Oh, I remember that one. He saw her at a McDonald’s when she was buying a happy meal for your girl. She was short two bucks and he paid for her. He thought she should be grateful enough to blow him, so he followed her to the car. She wasn’t. Bitch pepper sprayed him. It took me about four days to find her. Another to pay off the right people to let him walk right in the front door of your shitty apartment complex. Then we just had to wait for you to leave so he could cut up her face. He was going to do it the day before, but I told him not to do it in front of the kid. You’re welcome for that. Sergei may have fucked her up, but he didn’t kill your stupid wife. Dumb bitch did that herself.”

A cold rage built in my chest, threatening to explode. She’d never told me about the McDonald’s trip, but I remembered it then. Remembered how she’d come home shaken and was jumpy for a few days after. Remembered how she’d started talking about getting Lettie in some self-defense courses. Remembered how she didn’t want to leave the apartment for a few days after, how she kept getting up to check the lock on the door even when I told her I’d locked it.

That fucker.

The night I’d left to go to the store, he must’ve been waiting.

“I remember you too, you know,” Bowen said, looking past me to War. “The way you sobbed and begged for me to spare your faggot boyfriend.” He swallowed and shifted in his restraints. “Even if you kill me, you haven’t won. Simeon and his people will hunt you down. You think this is pain? You don’t know pain. But you will. When Simeon catches up with you, he’ll have you boiled alive. Everyone you love will die screaming. And as for your wife,” he said, looking at me. “What she got will pale in comparison to what we’ll do with those two little girls of yours. They’ll make fine whores.”

I closed my hand around his throat and squeezed. Bowen’s eyes bulged and he tried to make a sound, but all that came out was an impotent squeak as I closed off his air. “No one gets to threaten my family and live.”

Bowen’s face turned red, purple, blue, and still I squeezed. I stared into his eyes and squeezed as his pulse pounded against my fingers, as it stuttered, and then as it stopped. The monitors went haywire, and then flatlined.

For a long moment, the only sounds in the factory were the constant chime of the monitors and my labored breathing.

War’s hand was on my arm. “He’s dead, Pax.”

Not dead enough. I wanted him more dead. I wanted him in pieces. This fucker didn’t deserve to die whole.

“Step back.” I shrugged War off and lowered Jackie from my shoulder.

I brought it down on Bowen’s face with a sickening crack. My stomach turned, but I brought the bat down again and again, smashing it into him over and over until there was nothing left of Bowen above the neck but wet meat pudding.

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